Hailstork 3

Rec.:Grand Rapids Symphony

    This is one I listened to while on the bus yesterday. So I definitely need to relisten to the quietest sections, but I can give you my impressions. The piece is definitely American in quality. It has the use of brass and percussion, rhythmic intensity, and clarity that I generally associate with the American sound of the Copland tradition. In the faster spots of the first and third movement it also tends to relay on melodic and rhythmic cells overlapping with each other. Although he does keep the music more subtle in these faster sections, rarely letting the orchestra grow to climactic moments.

    The second and fourth movements also kind of pair up in my head even though the last movement isn't particularly slow, but they are both very meticulously paced and fairly subdued. In particular I was expecting a more grand finale from the last movement to match the frenetic energy of the first movement, but the last movement instead keeps its energy contained for the most part, just under the surface of the level of the piece. And even at that it takes a large chunk of the middle of the movement for an even more subdued section that doesn't have the melodic fragments (which ARE from the first movement at times) driving it forward. I feel like this finale is also the most complex movement musically.

    Anyways, just down to today to catch up, so I will do two tomorrow, and while I did listen to Hailstork #2 as well yesterday I'll do something else tomorrow. Twice tomorrow.